Nurses? stir hits patients

SHANTI DEVI (50) was referred to the KGMU by the doctors of the district hospital in Balrampur. She reached here today in severe pain but was refused admission in the medicine department as the nurses were on strike. She was hurriedly to the Balrampur Hospital but the doctors there told her husband that facilities there were not adequate to treat her.

SHANTI DEVI (50) was referred to the KGMU by the doctors of the district hospital in Balrampur. She reached here today in severe pain but was refused admission in the medicine department as the nurses were on strike.
She was hurriedly to the Balrampur Hospital but the doctors there told her husband that facilities there were not adequate to treat her.

As nurses were on strike for the third consecutive day today, patients faced acute discomfiture and were given excuses when they reached various government hospitals for admission. The end result was that private hospitals and nursing homes got more patients.

Nursing care in the state capital has been hit hard since Friday evening when the Rajkiya Nurses Sangh declared a two-shift strike for a month in support of their demands.

The state has decided to deal with the striking nurses in an abrasive manner and has deployed students from the nursing school and interns at government hospitals while in the KGMU, the junior residents have been assigned excess duty to look after in ward patients. However, women admitted to Dufferin and Jhalkaribai hospital and those coming in the emergency departments are the worst sufferers.

‘Nursing care can only be given by nurses and no body else. We are trying to manage but it is not easy, ,’ said a doctor of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.
In the superintendent ward of the Civil Hospital, technicians and other hospital staff were seen managing the nursing care and in Balrampur also the scene was similar.

Some of the nurses did come for duty but were restrained by the members of the nurses association and compelled to go back home, despite the announcement of the director general (medical and health) that those willing to work would be given protection against the pressure of the association.

Patients were refused admission with the excuse that since nurses were on strike, proper care and medication would not be possible.

CM asks nurses to resume work

CHIEF MINISTER Mulayam Singh Yadav has asked nurses to call off their strike in the interest of patients and work in all three shifts. He said nurses’ demands were under consideration.

The CM said health and medical services were among the priorities for the government and it was also the responsibility of the State nurses to ensure that these were not disrupted.

Meanwhile, principal secretary, Medical and Health, Neeta Chaudhary said talks with nurses were held on several occasions and a committee, headed by the director general, was formed to look into their demands.

The committee will soon submit its report on various issues, including promotion and terms of service of nurses, to the State Government.“Some of the demands are related to financial and legal formalities. Arriving at a final decision will take some time,” said Chaudhary.

She said working in one shift was a violation of the service rules. Thus whosoever failed to report for duty would lose salary for the strike period.
The situation is being reviewed everyday and hospital authorities have made alternative arrangements.

Chaudhary claimed the strike had not affected the entire State. The official added there was no strike in Jhansi, Jalaun, Varanasi, Azamgarh and Lalitpur. Substitute staff were deputed in Allahabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra and Moradabad divisions, where the strike had a partial impact.

Pharmacists, ANMs, health visitors and doctors were pressed into service.